Goldwork Embroidery

I promise I will get to the post about the utilitarian weaving that we saw at the Met. But, I've been thinking about embroidery lately, and I want to show you a beautiful medieval embroidery from the Cloisters.

 Netherlandish, mid-15th century

Originally part of a vestment or altar cloth, it is done in the or nue technique. Unlike most goldwork that I have seen, where the background is couched gold thread and the figures are silk, this piece is almost entirely gold. Only the faces and hair are silk embroidery. The rest of the picture, except for a few details, is formed by altering the spacing of the silk couching threads. The closer together they are, the more the color shows up, but always the gold shines through.

Isn't it exquisite?